Job description: Everything – from client meetings, strategic planning sessions, technology events/seminars, creative reviews, production/development reviews, and of course answering emails! Wish I could find someone to do the last bit for me….
Likes: I love the variety – the variety of clients, the variety of campaigns/projects, and most of all the variety of technologies.
Career ladder: I’m a reformed geek, I started out as a programmer, moved into project management, and specifically into product marketing client side, then finally took the plunge and moved agency side and to Agency.com. I joined Agency.com last July, firstly as a management consultant and then moved into the managing director role.
Qualifications: I have a BSC in Computer Applications from Dublin City University.
Working hours: 8-7.
Breaktime: Catch up on missed phone calls, get out for a walk, eat lunch on the roof, or grab a swim (rarely happens).
Social media credentials: Definitely a social media addict, although sometimes the lure is lessened as I’m on Facebook and Twitter so much with work. My mobile is stuck to me 24*7, so I use it for email and social media in and out of work.
News: Digital Buzz, TechCrunch, whatever is new in my inbox!
Onsite or offsite: A good mix of in office and out of office.
I love Mondays because: No matter how crazy my weekend was, I can be sure the week ahead will be even crazier!

In less than two weeks, a conference entitled Funconf takes place on a number of buses in Ireland. Featuring “some of the brightest folks” of the online world, the conference will see speakers and delegates board buses, speak and listen, respectively. The day (Saturday 11, September) includes breakfast, stories from speakers, lunch, more stories followed up with dinner and drinks at in the Guinness Gravity Bar.

While the conference itself may be full up, one of the organisers, Eamon Leonard, who established Funconf with Paul Campbell, explains people are welcome to join in the pre and post conference get togethers.
“It’s a whole weekend of events. We’re going to have a pre event meet up on the Friday night and it’s open to whoever wants to meet up. The conference starts at 8.30 am on Saturday morning with breakfast in l’Gueuleton. Then we’ll be hopping on the buses and heading off for the day. We’ll be coming back at 8pm and we’re having an after party in the Guinness Storehouse, in the Gravity Bar. That’s open for the wider industry, whoever wants to come along.”
To get on the list for the Gravity bar email funconf@gmail.com, to keep up to date in general, keep an eye on the Funconf blog.
Originally, Funconf was to take place on April 24th, but was postponed due to the ‘ash cloud’ restrictions effecting European airspace.
And in other conference news, tickets go on sale shortly for the next Dublin Web Summit which will feature the creator, founder and chairman of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, as a speaker. Dorsey will speak in the evening session of the next Dublin Web Summit which will be a 12-hour event with 50 speakers.

Blind networks or value networks are a group of websites that have unsold banner ad space on a monthly basis. As this inventory is perishable and useless once expired, they are sold to blind networks at a lower price on the condition that the publisher’s identity is not disclosed. This, of course, is to preserve and protect publishers’ key advertiser agreements and regular income streams.
Advertisers will be unable to target by site, but according to Michelle O’Keeffe, managing director of Media Brokers the latest blind network in the Irish market, advertisers can target ads by channel (news, sport, fashion), gender, demographic, just not by site. Media Brokers is also the first with its offering on indigenous Irish websites.
“The reason I think this is important is from a consumer perception and a consumer trust point of view we believe we’ll get higher click through rates. If you’re an Irish person on an Irish site, you’re going to think the advertising around it is meant to be you.” She gives the example of an Irish person on the New York Times website who didn’t feel that an ad for a specific computer company would be relevant to him because he was on a non-Irish site.
“From our tests we are seeing higher click through rates from Irish sites, there are many explanations for this; ads placed within relevant content, brands are aligned with reputable indigenous sites, a sense of consumer trust on respected and well known publishers,” says O’Keeffe.
Media Brokers will conduct pre campaign analysis of the client and the campaign objectives in order to best place the campaign within their platform. Using pre campaign analysis it intends to achieve strong click through rates from the outset and will optimise by publisher and creative throughout the campaign.

This new award is for any programme using online gaming (e.g. online, mobile or casual).
Says Susan Grant, Event Director, “the reason that gaming was identified is because it is a real evolving market in Ireland. There are a lot of international gaming companies who have come into Ireland and are now making their presence known.”
She adds that it is very reflective of the growth of digital media in the last couple of years. “As it evolves the Digital Media Awards need to recognise this…The industry itself has said this is an area that needs recognition if it is to continue to attract that level of investment into Ireland. It needs to be embraced and rewarded.”
Nominations are now open for the awards which are in their 9th year. Every year the Digital Media Awards recognise and reward the most stylish, creative, and pioneering work within the digital media industry in Ireland.
For 2011, there are 22 categories awarding the innovation and talent of individuals and companies in areas including viral marketing, user experience, best app, financial services, animation, digital advertising, e-learning and best agency.
Ashville Media Group has secured Satellite Broadband Ireland as its partner for the awards for the next three years
For further information on the Satellite Broadband Ireland Digital Media Awards 2011, and to enter, log on to www.digitalmedia.ie.

Nominees for “The Graduate” category must have graduated this year and have an innovative online idea or design which impresses the judges and the industry. According to the awards website, a graduate’s website, which may be a portfolio website, will also be assessed against good practice standards in creativity, web design and innovation.
Awards organisers have also included three new categories this year, bringing the total to 20. They are: the Digital Editor Award, the Best Mobile App Award and The Big Mouth Award.
Chairman of the judging panel and Group Managing Director of Consumer and Small Business, eircom, Stephen Beynon commented, “This year we are very excited about the three new award categories, in particular the Big Mouth Award - the shortlist for which will be determined by the public.”
The Big Mouth Award acknowledges the most influential voice in Irish internet and digital media. This award differs from the conventional nomination process, allowing the public to nominate and comprise a shortlist of “Big Mouths”. Nominees may include active bloggers, online journalists, or other relevant mediums covering topics such as business, charity, culture or politics.
The closing date for nominations for the eircom Spiders Awards – which will take place on Thursday, 18th November 2010 in the Burlington Hotel – is Friday, 17th September 2010.
The 2010 eircom Spiders are hosted in conjunction with Business & Finance Magazine. For further information on the awards and for details on the entry process for each category please visit http://www.eircomspiders.ie.

One of the event directors is Bren Byrne, an illustrator, who says that the event, which takes place on October 1, 2 and 3, is set to become an annual event. “We had such a positive response to it that we moved to the Grand Canal Theatre this year. Last year we sold out eight weeks beforehand.”
The three-day event, which is almost a one of a kind in Europe, is taking place in the Grand Canal Theatre which can accommodate about three to four times the number that last year’s event could - 2,000 in the main room and 300 in a second room.
This year, says Byrne, the range of speakers has widened and includes people in the advertising world, illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators. “There’s nothing really like it in Europe with a variety of speakers. Now there are conferences out there for typography or illustration but ours is a celebration of creativity rather than just one aspect of it.”
One of the coups for the organisers is George Lois, who Byrne describes as one of the original “Madmen” in the advertising industry. “He’s a real character and a lot of people are very excited about seeing him.”
The atmosphere of the event is great and Byrne says it’s an ideal opportunity for networking.
“There are 24 main speakers who will give either lectures on a subject or presentations on their own work, background, current projects. Then we have a second room where it’ll be less formal: Q&As, panel discussions, workshops featuring our speakers and also the wider Irish creative community.”
He gives the example of a workshop on advice on how to become an intern in a design agency as well as interactive self-promotion type debates.
Whether people want to attend for a day or all three, tickets are sold as a weekend ticket and people tend to come along for full days and join in the festival-type atmosphere.
See http://www.iloveoffset.com for details of tickets, speakers and schedules.

Following close to two months of nominations and website evaluation, the awards process will culminate with an awards ceremony in the Mansion House in Dublin, on Sunday, October 10.
This year there have been a number of changes to the award categories. These include the addition of Best Mobile App, Best SME/Small Business Website, Best Facebook Page, Best Web Only Publication and Best Guerilla Social Media Campaign (Zero Budget).
There is a varied list of categories including best discussion forum, best independent podcaster, best videocaster and best social media campaign.
According to the awards website, the technical categories now have stricter criteria and will have more in-depth judging. These are for website owners or website developers to show the work, techniques and technology used to build a website. Nominations in this section can only be made by website owners or people with permission from the site owner to nominate.
If you’d like to sponsor a category, visit http://webawards.ie/want-to-sponsor
Want to make a nomination or have a general look around, go to http://webawards.ie

Company: Rothco is one of Ireland’s most successful advertising agencies, with some of Ireland’s biggest and best known companies as clients such as AIB, Currys, Hibernian Aviva, Crisis Pregnancy Agency, Birds Eye and Coca-Cola Bottlers.
Job description: I’m responsible for the digital creative output, so my time is  shared between brainstorm sessions, creative concept development and art direction. I also work on design as much as time allows.
Likes: I really love the design and the problem-solving parts of my job. Whether it’s from a marketing or a technical point of view. As for Rothco, it’s great to be working in an agency that recognises digital as a core offering but places its main focus on ideas.
Career Ladder: I started a career as a translator but took as swift U-turn and returned to college to study multimedia. I worked in Cybercom for almost 6 years where I held the positions of Joint Creative Director and Studio Manager. While there I was developing digital campaigns for brands like Guinness, Powerade, Adidas and Aer Lingus.
Qualifications: I have an M.A in Irish Literature and History from the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.
I went back to college a couple years later to do a M.SC in Multimedia Systems in TCD.
Working hours: I try and keep a balanced life but it’s a deadline driven industry, so it really depends on how many projects I have on and what stage they’re at…
Breaktime: I like grabbing a sandwich from Chez Max, a taste of home, and eat it by the canal. Often enough I end up having lunch at my desk, catching up on research.
Social media credentials: The nature of my job requires that I keep an eye out for emerging networks and technologies. I use my iPhone’s social media apps pretty much all day every day…I wouldn’t consider myself hooked but it’s by far the most convenient way to stay in touch with what’s going on in the industry and the world at large, whether it be friends or the news.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alexisbouckaert
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisbouckaert
News: When I have time I grab an espresso at home and check out what’s new on the iPhone (Mashable app, French design app Etapes and Twitter mostly)
Onsite of offsite: Most days are spent at the desk and running around the office. Every so often I slip out to a coffee shop to get some head space and focus on a given project.
Why do you love Mondays? To be honest, most Monday mornings I’m like a rebellious child who won’t go to school… But what makes Mondays ok for me is the fact that I truly enjoy my job. And because there’s usually something pressing to do as soon as I’m in, before I know it I’m working away on an interesting project and I’ve forgotten how bad I wanted to stay in bed…

One of the organisers, Eamon Leonard of EchoLibre explains that Pub Standards is structure free, there is no format, no leader, no agenda, it’s just people coming together to talk about what they’re passionate about over beers.
“It was born in the UK about five years ago. The thinking behind it is very simple: get people together who like to talk about what they like doing and have beer and that’s it.”
About 25 people attended the first one in mid August. Leonard says that conversations he overheard varied from UX design to systems design, database, schematics, beer, boys, girls, general, to America’s Got Talent. “The conversation ranged from not just technical stuff right through to everything.”
He also feels that people can further themselves through getting out there and attending events. “The people you constantly see at events are the ones who in one shape or another are getting ahead and they’re doing ok. I don’t think that’s an accident. I think there’s a correlation between getting out there, meeting other people in the industry, learning from people, collaborating with people and using other people to further your own goals.”
He says that people don’t realise is that development is creative too. “It is creative problem solving. It’s not something that you can turn on at 9 o’clock and turn off at 5 o’clock. The same way with design. So you’re bringing two groups of people together whose skill set is very different but whose way of thinking of very much aligned. You sprinkle that with beer and magic happens.”
What Leonard would love to see coming out of Pub Standards is a designer and developer getting chatting about an idea, deciding to do something about it and this resulting in a piece of software a few months later.
It’s also an opportunity for people returning or moving to Ireland or who would like to get into the industry to meet people in a non-threatening way.
And this is exactly how it got started here. One of Leonard’s partners at Echo Libre, Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson, who is from Iceland had attended Pub Standards meet ups in London. When he moved to Ireland, he suggested that a Pub Standards meet up should take place here.
Visit http://pubstandards.ie and pop Thursday 9th September in your diary for the “post-conference drink-up without the conference.”

]]> http://blog.prosperity.ie/2010/08/17/pub-standards-raises-the-bar/feed/ http://blog.prosperity.ie/2010/08/17/techcrunch-seeks-irish-tech-stories/ http://blog.prosperity.ie/2010/08/17/techcrunch-seeks-irish-tech-stories/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:10:05 +0000 admin http://blog.prosperity.ie/?p=442 TechCrunch Europe, the European edition of the widely read tech blog, is looking for stories and views from the Irish tech scene.

Editor Mike Butcher last week wrote in a blog post that the blog would like “guest posts for TechCrunch Europe, written by people on the tech scene in Europe”.
Speaking to Prosperity’s Digital Ezine he said “it’s not very dissimilar to a newspaper calling for readers’ letters. But we’re a blog so we ask people to write guest posts.”
However, Butcher commented that he has found the amount of people willing to contribute from Ireland astoundingly low. “I’m generally fairly flabbergasted by it. Every time I go to Dublin … I get my ear talked off and it’s fantastic, there’s so much going on and then I go back to London and … nothing. I don’t hear what’s going on. It seems to be quite an internal conversation a lot of the time in the market there.”
I would love Irish entrepreneurs to ping me with any ideas for guest posts…. You’re native English speakers as much as the Brits so it doesn’t make any sense not to have more contributions and I know the Irish entrepreneurs are fantastic so I’d love more from there.”
People in the technology industry across Europe have been invited to submit pitches for blog posts that are likely to be closer to full-blown articles. So who should get their pen to paper? “We like the people who are CEOs, start-ups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, maybe occasionally the odd social media expert that actually does know what they’re talking about.” Ideally, guest posters should be from within the tech industry but, says Butcher, occasionally people come from left field “who isn’t necessarily an insider but has an interesting take on stuff.”

To find out more see the original blog post from Mike Butcher at: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/08/13/my-fellow-europeans-we-want-to-hear-your-voices-write-for-us/

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